My views on: Servanthood
I almost had a serious car accident on Saturday. I came extremely close to crashing into a sheer cliff wall. Scary stuff. And yet, I'm glad. Why, you may ask? For a couple of reasons. For one thing, I didn't get hurt. I've personally seen what happens when car accidents hurt people, and let me tell ya, I don't like what I see. I'm also glad because my car doesn't seem to be any worse for wear. Something like that could have totaled my car, and cost me thousands of dollars in repair, or even worse, force me to try to get a new car. But do you know what makes me glad the most about this situation? God used it to teach me a lesson in servanthood.
(Note, some of you might know a little about this story already. I think now is the right time to explain the whole thing.)
For the last week or so, I've been actively dealing with an issue. Okay, I might as well be honest with you, it's a couple of issues. I have been suffering from acute cases of laziness and selfishness. Me and my mom have been going back in forth. She had been asking me to do certain, routine things, and I was less than enthusiastic about it. It got to a point where she asked me to drive down to our local grocery store to pick up a couple of bottles of wine, and I decided that I couldn't take it anymore. Some of you might be familiar with the Hyvee that's on South Locust, about a 5 minute drive away from my house. Well, I just didn't want to make a simple trip down there, and I started to give her an earful about it.
“It's not fair!” I yelled at her, secretly feeling ashamed that I'd regressed back into the mind of a 5 year old. “I don't care, it's true!” I said to myself, determined to be right. “She can't make me do it!” I told mom that I had already indulged her obnoxious craving for ham (making my case and lining it with evidence, as any fat-cat lawyer in California would do) and that she would just have to be happy with that. No more Hyvee for me.
Hurt and frustrated with my attitude, mom simply told me to quit yelling, and do as she said. “I'M NOT YELLING” I shouted, waving my hands frantically in the air. “I'm just so tired of dropping everything I'm doing, just so I can do whatever you want me to do!” After all, dear readers, I was right in the middle of a “very important” session of PS3 gaming. How dare she try to rip me from my console! Had she no decency? Realizing that I never really had a choice in the first place, I accepted my responsibility and got into my car. Little did I know that I was driving straight into some divine intervention.
At this point, my story almost begins to sound like a plagiarism of something like the movie Bruce Almighty, with Jim Carrey. It began when I turned my car on, and turned up the radio. Alright, classic rock, good stuff! Do you know what song just so happened to be playing as I began to drive? “You can't always get what you want” by The Rolling Stones. Really? “God,” I said, “are you trying to say something?” I didn't hear back from Him (yet). I figure it's probably coincidence, and make my way to Hyvee.
Once I find a parking space, it happens: God starts getting through to me. Words begin to materialize in my head, and they weren't coming from me. “You should apologize to your mom.” “I will later” I respond, “it doesn't matter to me now.” At this point, I tell myself that I'm just thinking too much, and it's not God who's talking to me, but it's my own thoughts. That's when I hear, “I'm not gonna put up with this anymore!” Woah. I'm sure that those of you who have known God might hear something like that and think “Uh oh, God's about to do something!” Well, even though I've been a Christian a long time, I hadn't been hearing a lot from God, lately (or maybe I just wasn't listening), so I continued to pretend that it was all in my head, and I just needed to finish what I was doing.
So I ran though Hyvee quick, got the wine, and went to check out. Ever so defiant and passive aggressive, I tell the cashier how I'd already been here earlier today, and how I had already taken care of my mom's obnoxious craving for ham. (Yeah, sorry mom.) Rather than comment on my infantile raging, the cashier says he doesn't eat a lot of meat. I didn't care about what he had to say at the moment, so I pretended to listen and got the heck out of there. Back in my car, I made my way to the other side of the parking lot, and went onto this little short-cut street called Mt. Carmel. This, dear readers, is when God was about to get my full attention.
Picture a thin back-street. It curves up the side of a sheer cliff wall. One side being the cliff, and the other side being a panoramic view of houses and the Mississippi River, far below. My side was the side closest to the cliff. As I'm driving up, another guy is driving down. I try to do the nice driver thing to do, and get as close to the right as I can, so we can pass each other unharmed. Normally, this isn't a big deal. But this time, there's a lovely little snow-drift on my right, making an already thin street skinnier than a super-model.
The right tire of my '95 Honda Accord begins to sink into the snow. “No problem” I think. Actually, it was a BIG problem! My entire car is literally sucked into the drift, up and to the right. Snow goes flying onto my car, covering my windshield, and panicking my mind into blank nothingness. In the next second, my car comes to a crashing stop.
I take a second to get my brain to start working again. I flip on my windshield wipers, and take a look. My car is literally a mere 2 inches away from the rock. Close call! I try to go in reverse, but my car isn't budging. I have no choice but to get out and see what the damage is. As I open my door, I look for the other driver. He's long gone, already on his way to wherever the heck he was going. My gaze turns towards the front of my car. The front 2 tires are firmly entrenched in the snow, making it explicitly clear why going in reverse was going to be impossible. Front-wheel drive has its problems, folks.
Running out of options, the first thing I do is call mom on my cell phone. I let her know what happened, I'm not hurt, and ask her to please bring a shovel. After that, I simply wait by my twisted car, hoping that nobody has trouble making it around. Several drivers pass by, asking me if I need help. “Unless you've got a shovel, I don't see what can be done.” They agree, no doubt relieved that they are relieved of their “good samaritan” duty, due to their inability. I keep waiting for mom, and just can't believe what's happening to me.
That's when it hits me: God allowed this to happen to me on purpose. He set it up. At that time, at that place, this certain driver was going to come. I was going to try and avoid him, and it would end up making me crash into a snow-drift. This was no coincidence, this was a dark symphony, orchestrated by God. He told me He wasn't going to take it anymore, and He meant it! You could say that our heavenly father saw one of His sons giving off a bad attitude and talking smack, and it was time to discipline me. Not with a spank, like earthly fathers give to their bad kids. No, God wanted to make sure I was getting the message. I felt humbled and ashamed. But soon, those feelings would change to being lucky, and loved.
Along comes a Jeep Wrangler. This guy rolls down his window, and asks me if I'm okay. I tell him the same thing I told everyone else. Then, get this: Not only does this guy have a shovel, he's also got a chain! After a little exchange, he gets his chain connected to the hooks on his Jeep, and strings it up around my car. I'm out of the drift in no time! It's great! Brett (my car-towing savior) doesn't ask for anything in return, and makes sure I'm able to drive up the rest of Mt. Carmel. I finally get home with some bottles of wine, and a different outlook on life.
People sometimes wonder how Christians can believe in a God they can't see or hear, and ask whether God truly exists. Well, my answer to them would be that I know for a fact that God exists. Not because I've seen him or heard a big booming voice from the sky, but because I've personally experienced Him in my life, and have learned from Him. Was it just a coincidence that I heard that song from the Rolling Stones? Did luck keep me 2 inches away from that cliff? Was it fate that brought a driver in a Jeep with a chain? There's just no way!
God looked at my heart, and didn't like what He saw. He loves me enough to let me know when I'm doing something wrong, and that I need to change. Was I scared at the time? Absolutely. But, as the Bible says, “Fear of the LORD is the foundation of wisdom.” (Proverbs 9:10). Well, let me tell ya, I'm afraid of God. Not because I think He's out to get me. But I fear and respect Him, because I know that He's not opposed to letting me come close to disaster in order to change bad habits.
Something like that doesn't make me resent God. I love God! I know that He's still watching over me, and changing me into who He wants me to be. God is real to me, my reading friends. And He's telling me I need to stop being lazy, and help my mom out whenever she needs it. True servanthood isn't about feeling like doing good things. It's about action. How much am I actually doing? Is my heart really in it? Well, it should be, because God loves us and wants us to serve others, as he serves us every day. If there's one thing I want you guys to get from this story, it's that. Pay attention to God. Because if you don't, there's no telling how far He'll go to get your attention. Fear and respect God. But more importantly, love God, because He loves you!
